Running Las Vegas

Trevor and I spent last weekend in Vegas! Our mission was to complete a half marathon on the Vegas strip . It was part of the Rock & Roll Marathon and Half Marathon Series, the first ever night time race. We were among 44,000 other crazies! Plus, any reason for a vacation to Vegas is worth it!!!

This post will be about the run. The fun Vegas part will be next.

The race was Sunday night. We arrived in Vegas on Saturday morning so we had time to enjoy before. We didn't leave until Tuesday, so we also had time to enjoy after the race.

We were able to sleep in and have a great lunch before the race. The weather in Vegas turned cold Friday. I mean, COLD!!! We were kind of prepared, but trust me people, it was COLD! The coldest part was the wait. The marathoners started at 4:00pm. Our run would not start until 5:30. We arrived just in time to see the first few corrals take off. It was actually very cool to see.

These are some of the really crazy people that ran 26.2 miles.

We only run 13.1 miles. Trevor and I are only half crazy. 

Before the race though, you gotta take care of business. Trust me, port-a potties are a BIG deal in races!

This was our corral. Big races line you up according to how long you think it will take you. They give each group a count down. The race officially started at 5:30. That was for corral number 1. We were 24. It does move pretty quickly. We started close to 6pm. While we waited, we met a really interesting lady. She was in her 50's and she was running a half marathon in every state! She was from Massachusetts and she has run in 10 states so far. She only started a year ago!!! I was impressed! Trevor and I were not as prepared for this run as we should have been, but she was encouraging to us both. We knew we could do this, we would pay a price though.

Honestly, I think Trevor and I were both shocked at how good we felt for the first half of the run. There were so many people, you had to be mindful of your surroundings. There was so much to look at as well. Half way Trevor decided he was going to go ahead of me. We were both walking and running, but he was just doing it a little faster than myself.  See, we are still happy at about mile 6.

Halfway is also close to down town. I attempted to take photos at several places, and even when I stood still, they just didn't come out. I think by now is when I was really feeling the effects of not properly training.

Reaching the end was hard. You really have to push yourself. For me, the pain was intense. I did a lot of race walking, but sometimes jogging actually felt better. But, when that finish line came, it did feel good. I was able to find Trevor immediately.



We may appear happy at the end, but we were hurting. The difference between this half and the one I did in January was being prepared. We ran, walked and finished, we knew we would. But, we felt every step of that afterward. We had not trained and our bodies were not happy with us. We had to walk back a mile to our hotel. It was the worst mile of the entire weekend. Our hotel didn't have a bath though, a hot shower would have to do.

We had a good experience though and right away knew we would do it again. But, we also decided to train and be prepared because no need to be in pain afterward!

Neither of us had good times for the run, but we didn't expect to. We had a nice vacation and we have nice shiny medals to prove it!